Leg attachment for golf bags



Nov. 30, 1954 DE WITT E. CARPENTER ETAL LEG ATTACHMENT FOR GOLF BAGS Filed July 30, 1951 2 Sheecs-Sheet 1 INVENTORS De Witt f Carpenter F Aven es r 3 1954 DE wm' E. CARPENTER a-rm. 2,695,751

LEG ATTACHMENT FOR GOLF BAGS Filed July 30, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 E Ma, TB 5- INVENTCRS De Wwt 5 Carpenter Cecil/1. Carperizter- Thomas m'tgen.

A-rrunney United States Patent Office 2,695,761 Patented Nov. 30, 119 .4.

LEG ATTACHMENT FOR GOLF BAGS De Witt E. Carpenter, Qecil H. Qarpenter, and Thomas Snitgen, Detroit, Mich; said Snitg'en assignor to said De Witt E. Carpenter and said Cecil H. (Zarpenter Application July 30, 1951, Serial No. 239,352

6 Claims. (Cl. 248-96) This invention relates to leg attachments for golf bags and particularly to certain improvements on the attachment disclosed in pending application of De Witt E. Carpenter, filed March 9, 1951, under Ser. No. 214,673. In common with the subject matter of said pending application, our improved construction employs aclip exteriorly attachable to the mouth portion of a golf bag, a mounting pivoted on such clip to swing to and from the bag, and a pair of legs participating in said swinging travel of the mounting and pivoted on the latter to swing to and from each other in a plane substantially including the pivot axis of the mounting, whereby said legs may predeterminedly diverge to form bag supports, or may lie side by side when not in use. By such arrangement, the legs may serve to elevate the month end of a bag as its other end rests on the ground, thus rendering the clubs more easily accessible and minimizing soiling of the bag. When the bag is being carried or is in storage, the legs are held collapsed against and beneath the bag, where they will be no detriment.

An object of our invention is to provide a materially simplified device for securing the collapsed legs in close proximity to the clip and hence in such proximity to the bag carrying the clip.

Another object is to provide in an improved manner for maintaining the bag axis centered above the pivotal ends of the legs, when the latter are in use, thus achieving a good equilibrium.

These and various other objects are attained by the construction hereinafter described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. l is a front view of our improved attachment, as adjusted for use.

Fig. 2 is a side elevational view of the same.

Fig. 3 is a front view of the attachment as collapsed and latched in its non-use position.

Fig. 4 is a rear view corresponding to Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a side elevational view of a golf bag as supported by the attachment.

Fig. 6 is a cross sectional detail on the line 66 of Fig. 3. 1

Fig. 7 is a cross sectional detail on the line 77 of Fig. 3.

In these views, the reference character 1 designates a member preferably in the form of an elongated plate exteriorly engageable with the mouth portion of a golf bag 2 and having an end portion 1a bent to a U form to straddle said mouth portion. An elongated spring 3 of leaf form is rigidly secured at an end thereof to the interior face of the plate 1, said spring projecting at its other end into the U portion 1a of the plate to form a clamping jaw opposing and coacting with the bent end of the plate. A part 4, preferably a rectangular block, is fixed as by rivets 4a, on the exterior face of said plate and centrally mounts a clamping screw 5 passing through said plate to apply thrust to the flexible end of the spring 3. By tightening such screw, the mouth portion of a bag may be firmly gripped between said spring and the bent end 111. Hinged to the block 4 by a pin 6 is one end of a mounting 7 for a pair of elongated legs 8, which project from the opposite end of said mounting, such pin underlying the bag. The upper ends of said legs lap the mounting and are individually pivoted on a pair of spaced rivets 9 fixed on the mounting transversely to the pin 6, said mounting having a recess 9a to receive the pivotal ends of the legs. The legs occupy and swing in a plane which also substantially contains the axis of the pin 6. In one limiting pivotal position of the legs (Fig. 3), they are substantially parallel and lie side by side. In their other limiting position, the legs diverge at approximately fifty-five degrees, such position being established "by a pair of toggle links 10, interconnecting mid portions of the legs. One of such links carries at their juncture a forwardly projecting lug 10a, facilitating manipulation of the links to or from their aligned relation and further preventing; any material downward convergency of the links. When the legs have their maximum divergency, they engage side walls of the recess 9a, such engagement preventing any swinging of the mounting about either pivot 9 relative to the legs. The mounting has a shoulder 11 parallel and adjacent to the hinge pin 6 and engageable by the block 4 upon swinging the legs and their mounting about said pin, to establish a desired maximum divergency of the legs to a golf bag. The preferred angle of such divergency approximates ninety degrees. (See Fig. 5.) When the legs occupy their sideby-s'ide relation and are swung up in proximity and parallelism to the bag, they must be latched in such position to avoid their gravitational downward swinging about the pin 6. As an extremely simple yet fully operative latch element, there is fixed on the lower end portion of the plate 1 a shank 12 outwardly projecting from said plate and formed with a rather large disk head 1211, so spaced from said plate that the legs will both be materially lapped by said head, upon swinging them about the pivots 9 to parallelism, subsequent to swinging them and their mounting to parallelism with said plate. Preferably the legs will engage the head 12a under sufficient friction to prevent their accidental escape from such head. The shank 12 is of a diameter to substantially fit between the legs when occupying their parallel position. Preferably said shank has an end portion extended through and upset upon the spring 3 to secure the fixed end of the latter to the plate 1.

When the described attachment is applied to a bag (as best appears in Fig. 2) by tightening the screw 5,

there is no necessity nor purpose in removal, since the attachment avoids impediment to carrying the bag or storing it in the usual manner. As appears in dash lines in Fig. 5, the collapsed legs extend adjacent to and lengthwise of the bag beneath the latter, when not in use, the headed shank 12 maintaining this position. Location of said shank between the legs assures against any lateral swinging thereof in unison from their stored position. In adapting the attachment for use, a golfer first spreads the legs apart, throwing the links 10 into a mutual alignment, such as to lock the legs in spread position. Having thus unlatched the legs from the headed shank, he now swings them with their mounting to their transverse relation to the bag, whereby they may support the bag at an incline as in Fig. 5. The bag cannot then roll laterally on the mounting since the expanded legs bear on opposed walls of the recess in the mounting.

The legs of the described attachment may be formed from standard stock requiring no shaping or machining other than drilling of a few pivot holes.

What we claim is: j

1. A golf bag attachment for supporting a bag at an acute inclination to the ground, such attachment comprising an attaching member exteriorly engageable with the mouth portion of a bag, means on such member for attaching it to said mouth portion, a pair of elongated legs having upper and lower ends, a mounting for the upper ends of the legs lapped by such ends, means pivoting the mounting on said member about an axis transverse to the supported bag, such axis underlying the bag in use of the attachment, said member having an extension toward the bag bottom beyond said mounting, means pivoting the legs at their upper end portions on the mounting to swing to and from each other in a plane substantially including said axis, whereby the legs may diverge to exercise their supporting function or may be compactly adjoined, said axis affording a swinging of the mounting and legs between a use position approximately transverse to the bag and a storage position adjacent to the bag, and a latch element fixed on said extension and disposed between the legs when in their said storage and adjoined position, said element underlapping the legs in such position and thus resisting their downward swinging.

2. A golf bag attachment as set forth in claim 1, said latch element comprising a shank fixed on and projecting from said attaching member between the legs and formed with a head overlapping the legs when they lie in lateral proximity to said shank.

3. A golf bag attachment as set forth in claim 1, said means pivoting the legs on the mounting to swing to and from each other comprising a pair of parallel pivots, respectively engaging the respective legs, and spaced to accommodate said latch element between the legs when the latter are adjoined and in said storage position.

4. A golf bag attachment as set forth in claim 1, said mounting being formed with a recess receiving the pivotal ends of the legs, and said recess having opposed walls restraining the diverged legs from swinging in unison.

5. A golf bag attachment as set forth in claim 1, said means pivoting the mounting on said attaching member comprising a part exteriorly fixed on said attaching member above said mounting and a pin hinging the mounting to said part, the mounting having a shoulder substantially parallel and adjacent to said pin engageable by said part to limit swinging of the mounting on said pin outwardly from the attaching member.

6. A golf bag attachment as set forth in claim 1, said mounting being formed with a recess receiving the pivotal ends of the legs, such recess having opposed walls engageable by the diverged legs to resist swinging of the mounting about said means pivoting the legs on the mounting when the attachment is in use.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 372,325 Parish Nov. 1, 1887 1,485,113 De Blieux Feb. 26, 1924 2,476,718 Foley July 19, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 23,624 Great Britain Oct. 12, 1910 432,282 Great Britain July 24, 1935 

